Wednesday, June 13, 2012

It's no secret that I love warm weather. I love to wear shorts and tank tops and sunglasses and hang out in sunshine all day. I absolutely loathe winter and am usually ready for the mercury to creep back up to 20 degrees by October.

Along with really enjoying hot weather, I love making summer mixtapes. Usually right after I'm done with the school year my first order of business is to make a mix that I can jam to while I'm cruising around on my skateboard. It is only June right now, but I've already made two mixes and I'll post them here!

These are currently my shit and also, at least I think, great pairings with hot temperatures:

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Yesterday I had a pretty bad day. Without going into specifics I was in a shitty mood and couldn't really shake it for most of the day. I realize that this pretty much goes without saying and is common sense, but I really don't like being in bad moods. Whenever I feel like shit I try to resolve it immediately because well, you know PMA and enjoying my life and stuff. I've felt pretty good since and these are the things I think have done to help:

1. Put on Vacation by Bomb The Music Industry! I liked the album when it came out but since it has really become way more than just an album for me. I listen to it so much that when I suggest throwing it on the ol' turntable Party Pat says "I dunno man, we've listened to it a lot lately." I just can't get tired of it. I know it inside and out and love it way too much. It pretty much became my best friend this past semester and it never ceases to make me feel like $1000000 and always puts a smile on my face.

2. I decided to start running again. Now I've only gone for modest runs the past two days but I gotta start somewhere, y'know? I took running pretty seriously in high school and was on the track and cross-country team each year I was. I really like running for a variety of reasons, which I am obviously about to go into detail about. The main thing is that it's not a finesse sport and it doesn't matter if you're a "natural athlete". Some people are just born more athletically inclined than others, it just the way it is. Some people can just wake up a huck a football half the field or are born with a fantastic baseball swing. With running it doesn't matter how good of an athlete you are, it matters how hard you train and how hard you push yourself. The person who runs the race hardest wins and that's all there is to it. I'm very uncoordinated and suck at sports, so this aspect of running has always appealed to me.

Another is that though baseball is easily my favourite sport, long distance running is the only sport I've done that makes me competitive. I played baseball my whole childhood growing up and while I wanted to win, the main reason I played was because it was so fun. Running is the only sport I've done where I psych myself up and push myself as hard as I can and think in my head "Push it. Pass this fucker. You trained harder. You are better than him. He doesn't deserve to beat you." While I like the positive physical affects of going for runs, the main I like to run is because I like to race. Going for runs makes me want to get better and race and beat people in races.

I also really like that running isn't a glory sport. My high-school was a very athletically inclined place with huge football and hockey programs. While those jocks were the guys who ruled the school, the cross-country was quietly the most successful high-school program in North America. Sure meatheads would wear their jerseys on game day and high-five everybody after wins, but we were the best. We just didn't brag about it.

Finally, obviously the effects of going for runs on my body is great. I haven't exercised since I left high school and stopped running and am in terrible shape. I never gain weight no matter what I eat because of my ridiculous mutant metabolism, but my body sucks at what it does. Running won't give me huge muscles but it will put me in incredible shape and give me more energy.

3. I watched a few episodes of the X-Files and some good movies.

4. I woke up, went for a run, made some sandwiches and started blaring Heads Are Gonna Roll by The Hippos. They were another one of the ska bands from the 90's who despite being great and far better than most of the "big" ones, never made it. Their aforementioned second album fucking rules and is much more than just a ska record. They take a ton of country and alt and post-punk and 80's influences and throw them all together. No two songs on the record sound the same except for the fact that they all sound amazing. Ariel Rechtshaid is a fantastic song-writer and should be employed as a song-writer for pop artists right now if he isn't already (The band broke up in 2003). All their songs are catchy and cute and have great bass-lines to go along with horn and synth parts that get stuck in your head immediately.